“Oh, where are the twin lords?”


  The twin lords were Ferdel’s sons who were visiting the palace every day. Once I was away from Serira, I looked around myself.

  “I don’t know. They must have gone out to explore the garden again.”


  “But it’s already snack time.”


  Serira showed a worried look. I pulled Assisi’s sleeve without uttering a word. Then I spoke to Serira.

  “I’ll go and find them!”


  “I’ll wait until you return, then.”


  “Let’s go, Assisi!”


  Somehow, behind me, I thought I heard, “Lady Serira is so awesome! It seemed to me that you treated the princess so well!” I was not sure, though. I guess it was just because of my gloomy mood.

  The warm sunshine welcomed me as soon as I got out of the pavilion of the garden that’s luxuriously built to make it seem like it would go on endlessly. I stopped walking because the sunlight settled for a moment, and I was briefly fascinated by the scenery that came into my eyes.

  The white trees, colorful flowers, flying butterflies, and birds all looked like images straight out of a picture book. It was not as beautiful as the winter tree garden, but what I was seeing was just as impressive.

  This is Illestri garden.

  It’s a place I called a shared garden, and it was a birthday gift I got from Caitel when I was four years old. For this garden to b made possible, the king removed a portion of the area where the harem stood along with the Winter tree garden, so he was criticized for damaging national cultural assets. Moreover, it was named after me as a special garden made especially for my own, exclusive use. Thus, whenever I remembered the name of the garden, I would get very embarrassed.

  Well, in fact, I used to chill at the winter tree garden because of the winter tree, but my father seemed to think that I liked the garden itself. In fact, when I tried to make a joke out of it, he tried to dig the winter tree and move its roots. Thus, his insanity frightened me and prompted him to stop. Ha, anyway, I couldn’t say anything else.

  Anyway, this garden was more extensive than I thought since it was not based on my scale, but it was arranged on the level of the royal family. It’s hard to look around even if I’d run all day. If one played hide-and-seek here, it would take about four hours for them to find the tagger. Still, I liked the fact that no one could come inside since it was my personal garden. It saddened me a bit that I couldn’t see Layla anymore while I took a walk.

  Anyway, where did the twins go?

  “Assisi, where shall we go first?”


  Assisi looked back at me upon hearing my question. Why? Was there something on my face?

  “If it’s too much for you, then I’ll find them myself.”


  “No, that’s fine!”


  I said I’d come out to look for them in the first place.

  Standing beside Assisi with a grin, he stared down at me.